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Plessy vs. Ferguson Timeline

By wlenoyrortiz2022@riordanhs.org

  • Separate Car Act issued by the Louisiana State Legislature

    Separate Car Act issued by the Louisiana State Legislature
    The Reconstruction period and its subsequent end led to a discussion among both Blacks and Whites in the South how to interpret "equal rights" and the new Reconstruction Amendments. Under this act, Louisiana required "equal, but separate" train car accommodations for Blacks and Whites.

  • Homer Plessy refuses to move from “white’s only” car and is arrested

    Homer Plessy refuses to move from “white’s only” car and is arrested
    Plessy bought a ticket on a train from New Orleans bound for Covington, Louisiana, and took a vacant seat in a whites-only car. After refusing to leave the car at the conductor's insistence, he was arrested and jailed. He argued that Louisiana's segregation law violated the 13th Amendment banning of slavery and the 14th Amendment's Equal Protection Clause.

  • The Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of racial segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine.

    The Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of racial segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine.
    In declaring separate-but-equal facilities constitutional on intrastate railroads, the Court ruled that the protections of 14th Amendment applied only to political and civil rights (like voting and jury service), not “social rights” (sitting in the railroad car of your choice).

  • Plessy changes plea to "guilty" for violating the Separate Car Act

    Plessy changes plea to "guilty" for violating the Separate Car Act
    After the Supreme Court ruling, Plessy's criminal trial went ahead in Ferguson's court in Louisiana on February 11, 1897. Plessy changed his plea to "guilty" of violating the Separate Car Act, which carried a $25 fine or 20 days in jail. The effect of the decision was long-lasting, providing a legal basis for segregation laws nationwide throughout the first half of the 20th century.

  • Gov. Edwards Signs the First and Historic Posthumous Pardon of Homer A. Plessy

    Gov. Edwards Signs the First and Historic Posthumous Pardon of Homer A. Plessy
    Now, nearly 125 years later, Plessy’s conviction has been wiped from his record. On Jan. 5, Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards signed a posthumous pardon for Plessy during a ceremony in New Orleans. The Orleans Parish District Attorney’s Office submitted the application for a pardon on Nov. 5 in what’s believed to be the first use of a 2006 state law, which allows people.